


In the Forests of the Night

by Zilchtastic



Category: Saiyuki
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-06
Updated: 2010-02-06
Packaged: 2017-10-07 02:00:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/60198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zilchtastic/pseuds/Zilchtastic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The woods beyond the town were known as a dangerous place.</p><p>Gojyo had lived right on the border for almost a year now, and he could see why. The forest was deep and dark and tangled as a witch's knitting, and it was said that people foolish enough to enter never came back out again. The stories all claimed it was the monster's doing, but Gojyo considered himself a sensible sort of man and figured it had more to do with wolves or bears or eating the wrong sort of mushroom. Still, there were times when even Gojyo got a chill from staring into the trees for too long-- even if it was only deer staring back at him, he did feel distinctly <i>watched</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Forests of the Night

**Author's Note:**

> _Tyger! Tyger! burning bright  
> In the forests of the night,  
> What immortal hand or eye  
> Could frame thy fearful symmetry?_  
> -William Blake

Sanzo was lost.

It had all gone wrong, so wrong, but Sanzo couldn't remember how, or what he'd come here to do. _This forest,_ he thought, with a feeling like he was swimming up through dark water. _I was going to..._ He didn't know anymore. There was something horrible here, something that lived in the cool green dark, something that wanted him.

No, something that _had_ him. Something that had him and Goku both.

"See?" the monster breathed against his ear, low and sweet and terrible. "Isn't this a good way to die?"

Sanzo thrust into Goku as deep as he could get. Noise, self, memory-- all seemed so far away, now. There was only the feeling of pleasure, pulling taut, looming darkly, ready to crash over him like a tidal wave, heavy and drowning. "Yes," he hissed, shuddering, "_yes_." Beneath him, he thought Goku moaned. Leaves stuck in his hair, green and brown and gold. Distantly he smelled wet earth-- and beyond that sweat, and beyond _that_, blood.

The monster thrust in hard behind him, biting at the back of Sanzo's neck. It sent him tumbling over the edge, finally, finally. Sanzo couldn't even hear himself cry out as he came, buried in Goku's heat, the monster plunging into his. Goku's eyes were wide and there was fear there along with the haze of lust, but he couldn't remember why. He shut his eyes against the look and let the pleasure swallow him whole as the darkness rose up to meet him.

 

***

 

The woods beyond the town were known as a dangerous place.

Gojyo had lived right on the border for almost a year now, and he could see why. The forest was deep and dark and tangled as a witch's knitting, and it was said that people foolish enough to enter never came back out again. The stories all claimed it was the monster's doing, but Gojyo considered himself a sensible sort of man and figured it had more to do with wolves or bears or eating the wrong sort of mushroom. Still, there were times when even Gojyo got a chill from staring into the trees for too long-- even if it was only deer staring back at him, he did feel distinctly _watched_.

He had a little house built practically on the edge of the woods. The rent was cheap-- no one else wanted to live there, after all. For Gojyo, who had a bit of a bad reputation in town, it was a godsend. No one bothered him out here, not the people he owed money to or the men he'd taken money from, not even the angry fathers who cropped up from time to time demanding he make an "honest woman" out of their poor (and quite willingly) deflowered daughters. No one wanted to be so close to the woods. It was perfect, really.

Fall was coming on, and it showed brightly in the trees. The profusion of gold and scarlet and orange all smeared together on misty days like a blurry watercolor painting, vague and shifting like the colors in a dream.

Gojyo sat on his back porch with his cup of coffee and watched the woods. As always, he got the creeping sensation that the woods watched him back.

Two men had disappeared a week ago, or so the talk in town claimed. A golden-haired priest had swaggered into town with a golden-eyed young man and a promise: _I can purify these woods for you._ The town council had scraped together a reward and then thrown the men a celebration in the little town square, and then sent them off into the woods with cheers and hope and encouragement. They hadn't been seen since.

No one had done anything, of course. No search party would ever be sent. Only fools and madmen walked into those woods willingly, and the two outsiders had done just that, walked willingly to their fates. It was sad, to be sure, but these things happened, the townsfolk said. The woods were a curse, and only an idiot would walk with open eyes right into a curse. After that, it was the monster in the woods who decided things. It was out of human hands.

Gojyo slurped his coffee and listened to the cautious chirping of birds and thought about the sack of gold in the town coffers that would never be claimed. He thought of a golden-haired stranger and a golden-eyed boy. Mostly he thought about fate, and how people liked to use it as an excuse to do nothing. He poured out his cold coffee dregs next to the stump that marked the end of his back yard and the start of the forest, and then he turned around and went back inside.

It was well past noon when he finally made up his mind to go. Gojyo didn't believe in monsters, but still... he was a cautious man. He'd gotten by for this long by watching out for number one, after all. It was when you started watching out for two or three that the math began to get tricky.

The trees closed around him as he picked his way into the forest. The undergrowth was still thick and green with a cacophony of splaying ferns and creeping bushes and low, trailing vines, and the ground was soft beneath his feet thanks to a carpet of velvety moss. Everything smelled of earth and damp and soft growing things.

He followed a narrow, winding deer path deeper into the woods, and all the while he wondered what he was doing. Did he really think he'd find the two strangers in here? The woods were huge and sprawling. He could walk for days and never see the other side. But when he thought of the gossip in town and the smug, rueful head-shaking of the other villagers, it made something tight and angry twist inside his chest. _I'd want someone to look for me,_ is what he thought. _Even if it was hopeless..._ And that was the part that wrenched the most, because he knew no one would come to see what had happened if he never went back to his little house. _Bastards,_ he thought, and then he picked up his pace.

Hours passed. The sun was going down, though it was hard to tell how far along it was here beneath the trees. Gojyo sat on a fallen log in a little clearing and drank some water and wondered what to do.

It was too late to turn back-- it'd be night before he made it halfway, and he'd be stumbling over roots in the dark. The only sensible option was to stay here and make camp. He could press on in the morning.

He'd just decided to start gathering kindling for a fire when something rustled behind him, driving his heart up into his throat. _A deer,_ he thought. _A raccoon. A fox._

He turned around. A figure stood there in the shadows, tall and slim and definitely human.

"Hello," said a cool, gentle voice. "What are you doing in my woods?"

 

***

 

It was hard to see what the person looked like, but Gojyo was somehow certain that it wasn't the priest. He clutched at his knapsack hard before his brain reminded him of politeness, of the fact that "hello" usually required a response.

"Um," he said, cleverly, "hi." He willed the pounding of his heart to slow. "I'm looking for someone. My name's Gojyo. Who're you?"

The figure shifted, very slightly, like he was about to step forward. "I'm someone, I suppose. And it looks like you've found me." There was something vaguely off about the sound of his voice, some fragment of note or pitch that made him sound dreamy and strangely far away.

"Do you, uh, live here?" It seemed absurd that he should come upon a person here. No one in town had ever mentioned anyone living in the woods. Well, no one _human_, anyway.

"Of course. And you... I know you. You live in the house near the edge of the trees."

Gojyo swallowed hard and fought a crazy urge to take a step back. "You-- How do you know that? Have we met? Have I seen you in town?"

"Oh, no. Nothing like that." The figure did step forward then, sliding into the better light of the clearing, and Gojyo felt his eyes go wide. _Not a human. Not a human at all._

The monster of the woods smiled at him, all sharp eyes and sharp claws and pointed ears and pointed _teeth_. "You see," he said, in a perfectly reasonable tone, "I've been watching you for a long time."

 

***

 

Gojyo tried to run, he really did. He wasn't a fool after all, impromptu hikes into the woods aside. He turned and sprinted for the trees but his feet caught on roots and he tripped. Something pulled at his legs, dragging him back, and when he reached down to try to untangle himself they caught his wrists, too. _Not roots,_ he realized numbly. _Vines._

They moved with a mind of their own, curling around him like winding green snakes. Gojyo heard himself make a noise, a high tight sound of fear. He wrenched at the vines, but the more he struggled the tighter they gripped him, dragging his arms above his head, wrapping around his chest in an obscene sort of embrace.

He felt himself pulled until he stumbled with his back against the rough bark of a tree. The vines anchored there, holding him fast, stronger than any rope.

And then the monster was there. Gojyo bit his tongue against the automatic cry that wanted to escape him. _Oh god, oh god, oh god._

Vines seemed to wrap around the creature, and it took Gojyo a woolly moment to realize they were tattoos or perhaps brands, dark against the paleness of his skin. His ears were long and sharp, and his wood-brown hair dragged trailing ends in his eyes. He was dressed in darkest green, like the shade of pine needles. This close Gojyo could smell him, too-- his scent was wild and sharp, like crushed green leaves and cool damp earth. It made something strange flutter deep in his chest, something that wasn't fear, or wasn't _only_ fear.

The monster leaned in close, till their noses almost touched. "It's so busy in here these days," he murmured, smiling, like they were having a chat over tea. "I wonder what this sudden interest in my forest means."

"You," said Gojyo, and his throat went dry. He had to cough a little to clear it. "You mean the others? What happened to them?"

The monster touched his cheek, trailing claws across his skin, just the faintest of touches. "I ate them, of course. Isn't that what monsters do?"

Gojyo shuddered and closed his eyes. "Shit. _Shit._"

"They weren't your friends," the monster said, sounding very sure. "Why are you so concerned?"

"Dunno." Gojyo didn't dare jerk away from those claws as they traced feather-light over his closed eyelids. "Just makes me mad, is all. That nobody cared."

"I see." The claws fell away. "You're very brave, aren't you?"

"No," said Gojyo, bitterly. "I'm not brave at all." He was a week too late to call himself that.

A puff of laughter ghosted across his lips, and then he was being very slowly and very gently kissed.

Gojyo made a faint sound of surprise, his eyes flashing open wide. The monster's lips were warm and very soft. He drew back slowly, smiling that strange dreamy smile.

"Shit," Gojyo said again.

"Don't be afraid," the monster said, almost a whisper. "I won't hurt you."

Gojyo felt dizzy. "Does that mean you won't kill me, or that it won't hurt?"

The monster laughed and kissed him again. "Brave," he murmured, after a moment, "and clever, too. How remarkable."

Gojyo's knees began to shake. The vines pulled tighter, holding him up.

 

***

 

"Shh," the monster soothed, trailing a hand over Gojyo's side the way one might stroke a frightened animal. "Don't struggle like that, now. It will only make me want you more."

Gojyo shivered, hard, but he did stop trying to pull away from the tree. It wasn't doing him much good, anyway. "Stop," he said, but his voice came out weak and almost unsure. "You... you shouldn't..."

"Why shouldn't I?" The monster licked a slow, wet path across Gojyo's mouth. "You came into my woods. You're mine. That's just the way it works."

Gojyo shook his head, more to try and clear it than to deny anything. He felt muzzy and yet strangely light, and he wondered distantly if maybe he was dreaming. The woods were growing dark now, the shadows padding in on silent feet. Stars had begun to appear, one by one, in the patch of visible sky overhead. Their cool light silvered the edges of everything, made the world look strange and unreal.

The monster kissed him again, so achingly gentle and sweet that Gojyo trembled and moaned beneath his mouth. Something electric and warm crackled behind the fear, something that made Gojyo open his mouth when the kiss got harder. The monster made a sound, a faint pleased murmur, and then he was licking into Gojyo's mouth, deep and wet and hot.

"Oh god," Gojyo breathed, when at last the monster pulled back. He was shaking and breathing fast, and his cock strained hard at the front of his pants. _Just from this. Just from being kissed. Oh god._

"Beautiful," the monster said, and there was a note like wonder in his voice. His hands came up to cup Gojyo's face, gently. For a moment Gojyo almost forgot about the claws. "So beautiful. Do you like the way I make you feel?"

"Yeah," Gojyo rasped. It didn't even occur to him to lie. "Yes."

The monster smiled. It made something in Gojyo's heart ache to see it. "Good. I'd like to make you come, over and over. I think I can. I think I will."

"Are you going to kill me?" Gojyo blurted.

The monster nodded, slowly, and petted Gojyo's hair. "Hush, now. It will be a good death." He kissed a warm, wet trail down Gojyo's throat. "I promise you'll enjoy it. That's fair, isn't it?"

Gojyo wanted to tell him that it wasn't, but then the monster slid a hand over the front of his pants, squeezing gently, and he abruptly forgot the reason why.

 

***

 

"Please," Gojyo heard himself saying. "Oh god, touch me, please."

The monster laughed against his mouth. "But I am touching you, Gojyo."

"No, I mean." He tried to thrust his hips, but the vines clutched him bruisingly tight. The monster laughed again.

"Here? Is this what you want?" Fingers trailed down the center of his chest, agonizingly slow. The fabric of his shirt parted obediently in the wake of razor-sharp claws. The monster's hand stilled at the top of Gojyo's pants. "Shall I keep going?"

"Please, yes, please."

The monster leaned in and kissed him hard, biting at Gojyo's lower lip, tongue thrusting in. Fingers played with the fastenings of his pants and Gojyo lost it right then, shuddering and moaning into that perfect clever mouth.

"Oh, my, yes." The monster drew back, looking wicked and pleased. "You're so very responsive. I've barely even touched you yet." His fingers dipped down, slid across the wetness seeping into the fabric.

Gojyo's face flushed hot with shame. "I don't-- I don't usually--"

"Shh. You've no need to be embarrassed. Didn't it feel good?"

Gojyo took a deep, shaking breath. "Yeah."

The button at the top of Gojyo's pants flicked open and the monster dropped to his knees in a graceful sort of collapse. His eyes glittered up at Gojyo, cat-slitted and yellow as poison. "The next one will be even better."

 

***

 

Gojyo couldn't seem to catch his breath. "D'you... do this... with everyone?"

"Mm," said the monster, as he traced idle patterns across Gojyo's damp skin. He was smiling that vague smile. "It's fair, isn't it? Pleasure in exchange for their lives. I make them feel very, very good."

"So... So that priest and his apprentice...?"

"Of course. They were both very beautiful, too." There was a sharp, quick pain, and then he was ducking his head to lap slow and catlike at Gojyo's blood where it seeped from a shallow cut on his hip. "They liked everything I did to them."

Gojyo shuddered, trying not to picture it and mostly failing. The moon danced higher overhead, fat and pale and waxing full.

"Why...?" Gojyo murmured, finally.

The monster looked up at him, tilting his head to one side like a curious dog. His eyes were considering.

"There is a story I heard once," he began, slowly. "A human comes across a lion caught in a cruel trap. Feeling pity, the human frees the lion, which then immediately pounces on him." He tapped a finger against his lips. There was a smear of Gojyo's blood there. "The human asks the lion, 'Why?' I suppose it was a very accommodating lion, because it answers the human. 'You acted according to your nature,' the lion says, 'now allow me to act according to mine'."

Gojyo let out a long, shaking breath. "Makes sense, I guess," he said, after a moment. He sagged back against the tree.

"Does it? I'm glad." He kissed Gojyo's hip, almost tenderly. "I wouldn't want you to be angry with me."

Gojyo felt himself laugh at that, a little bitterly. "Would it change anything if I was?"

"No," said the monster. "Nothing at all."

 

***

 

"I was a god once, you know," the monster said, a little while later. He was still on his knees, and it was hard for Gojyo not to think about how beautiful he looked there.

Gojyo tried to breathe slowly, tried to calm the erratic pounding of his heart. "Yeah?"

The monster nodded, eyes serious. "It was a long time ago. Sometimes it feels like it was another life. I made the woods-- they were much bigger, then-- and people everywhere worshiped me. Beautiful maidens and handsome young men were my sacrifice." He nuzzled against Gojyo's side, rubbing his cheek there like an oversized cat. "Their blood and bone and meat fed the trees and the creatures and the soil. Their ecstasy and agony fed me."

"Aren't you still a god?" Gojyo asked. Something made the words come out small and choked.

"Am I? No, I don't think so." He sighed, long and heavy. "No one remembers me any longer. No one burns incense, and no one chants my name. I'm only a monster now, a hunter in my own woods." He slid a hand warmly up Gojyo's thigh. "Some day, I suppose I shall die."

Gojyo swallowed hard at the sudden tightness in his throat. "What... what's your name?"

"I don't remember anymore," the monster said, softly.

 

***

 

Gojyo watched the moon as it sailed its slow course across the sky. "Hey," he said, rather thickly, "when are you gonna--"

"Shh," murmured the monster. "Don't be so eager for the end. All in good time." He slid to his feet, licked at Gojyo's collarbone almost delicately. "I want to fuck you, first."

Gojyo drew in a sharp breath, surprised at the dizzy wash of heat that brought. He felt himself growing hard again, impossibly. "Nnh. I can't believe this."

"Do you want that, Gojyo? It will be so good." A sharp bite, followed by soothing kisses. "I want to, so much. You make me so hungry."

Gojyo panted and shook, tasted fear and lust on the back of his tongue, sharp and bitter-sweet. "Oh, god..."

"I am the only god here," the monster said.

Gojyo barely heard him. "I... want it. Do it, please."

"Oh, Gojyo," the monster breathed, and then he kissed Gojyo until they were both shaking with it. "You're mine," he said, hotly. "You'll be mine forever."

And Gojyo said, "Yes, yes."

 

***

 

The vines scraped tight against his wrists, their delicate dark leaves prickly-sharp against his skin. Gojyo moaned, loud and long, too caught up in sensation to remember to feel ashamed.

The monster-- the god-- moved inside him, hot and hard, filling him up. It hurt, and it also felt good-- so good, _too_ good. Gojyo wasn't sure if he wanted it to stop or if he wanted it to go on forever. He tightened his legs around the monster's hips, tried to draw him closer, deeper. Wanted it, more than he could remember wanting anything before.

"Gojyo," the monster panted. "_Gojyo._" His eyes had gone almost glassy with lust. His fingers tightened on Gojyo's hips; Gojyo felt the claws, felt warmth and wetness slide down his skin as he bled. It was too difficult to care.

"Please," he heard himself say. "Please, I want to--"

"I'm going to kill you," said the monster, "after you've come." His thrusts didn't slow. "I'm almost sorry about that." He kissed Gojyo, open-mouthed and sloppy and frantic. "I've never had anyone like you before. I wish I could fuck you forever."

Gojyo hissed sharply, tried to arch his back. "Anything, c'mon, please--"

"Come for me," the monster breathed against his ear, sounding fierce and wild and inhuman and so very, very close. "Gojyo, Gojyo--"

Gojyo cried out, over and over, screams of rage and fear and bright, inexplicable joy as the pleasure washed through him, over him, breaking like a wave. He felt himself shudder, felt wetness splatter across his own skin, felt the monster's last thrusts and the heat of his mouth as his teeth clamped on Gojyo's throat. _This is the end,_ he thought as darkness chewed at the edges of his vision. He was too exhausted now to be afraid.

The lingering ripples of pleasure followed him down as he fell. His last thought was of the monster's breathless voice, saying his name.

 

***

 

Gojyo awoke to a sky washed with the first tinges of morning.

For a long time he stared up at the warm brushstrokes of peach and violet and pink, unable to understand what they meant. Finally, as the sky warmed into tones of orange and gold, it dawned on him:

_I'm not dead._

It hurt to move. It hurt _everywhere_\-- his back, his legs, the muscles in his arms and stomach and chest. He sat up anyway. He was naked and bruised. Scratches ran in long bloody furrows down his hips and thighs, and his back felt scraped raw.

_I'm alive._

Alive, and in his own backyard. He looked around in astonishment. Yes, there was his house, looking tiny and destitute and completely fantastically wonderful in the dawn's rising light. He was sitting in his own overlong grass, his back propped against the stump that marked the end of the lawn and the start of the woods.

His heart started to thud, rattling hard against the cage of his ribs. Gojyo looked back over his shoulder, into the trees.

There was nothing to see. The trees tangled together like woven strands, thick and inscrutable.

It was cold. The grass slid against his skin, wet with dew. After a long time Gojyo climbed stiffly to his feet. He stood there and shivered, looking into the woods.

When the sun poured itself over the horizon Gojyo let out a long pent-up breath, shook his head, and stumbled into the house. He closed the door firmly after.

 

***

 

It was a whole week before he finally made up his mind to go.

Gojyo looked around his house, took in the details-- the wobbly kitchen table, old and scarred; the narrow bed, unmade; the coffee pot he'd bought honestly in town and the skillet he'd stolen the day after. There was a battered old trunk in one corner, and a splintery wooden bookshelf that held up only three books. He sighed. It had never really felt like home, anyway.

He made his way into the woods, stepping across leaves and rocks and roots twisted like old brown bones. The sun filtered through the leaves; he could just see the cloud of his breath in the air. He felt weirdly light, unburdened.

He stopped in a little clearing some hours after noon. Pine needles crackled underfoot, and their sharp, clean smell filled his head. He sat on a fallen log and drank some water and thought about fate, and how it sometimes made people take action, after all.

The undergrowth made a shivering sound. Gojyo didn't move. "Hey," he said, quietly, because he knew.

"Why did you come back?" the monster asked him, voice at his ear. He sounded genuinely puzzled.

Gojyo swallowed, hard. "I'm not sure. I just... It didn't feel right."

Fingers threaded through his hair. Gojyo felt claws at the nape of his neck. He closed his eyes.

"Do you want me to kill you?" asked the monster. He licked, hot and wet, at Gojyo's ear.

"No," Gojyo whispered. He kept his eyes closed. "I, um. I wanted to give you something."

He could feel the surprise, like a hum in the air. "What?"

Gojyo turned around, then. The monster was looking down at him, animal-eyes gone comically wide. Before he could chicken out Gojyo forced himself to reach out, to grab one of those clawed hands. He traced the vine-pattern with his fingers. It was dark green and almost delicate.

"I don't know what your name used to be," Gojyo said, breathing it out in a rush, "but I can give you a new one. If you want."

The monster stared down at him with an expression like astonishment or heartbreak. "Oh," he whispered, wonderingly. "Gojyo..." His other hand reached out to touch the side of Gojyo's face.

Gojyo felt wetness at the corners of his eyes. He leaned into the touch and bit his lip and shook. "Hakkai," he whispered, helplessly. "Hakkai."

The god who was a monster who was now Hakkai let out a little noise, like a sob. He pulled Gojyo into his arms with strength that wasn't human or safe at all. "Oh," he said, sounding choked. "You shouldn't have done that. Now I'll never let you go."

Gojyo buried his face against Hakkai's neck. He was so warm. He smelled of plants and rain and earth and blood, so good and so terrible and just so _right_.

"I know," said Gojyo, kissing his skin. "I know."

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't put up a warning for "character death" because deep down, I'm pretty sure Hakkai didn't actually eat anyone. Whether he kept them around for entertainment or let them go after a night of ecstasy is anyone's guess, however.


End file.
